The Space Between
by BabyLezzie
Summary: A little oneshot of what happened between What's In a Name and A Rose by Any Other Name. MoJo parenting fluff. Review please! Rated T for language.


**Soooo... I got bored one day and decided that I needed to fill in the blanks with what happened between What's In a Name and A Rose By Any Other Name, so I present you with The Space Between!!!**

**Hope you guys like it!!! I'll be updating All Grown Up soon, I promise!**

**Please review!!!!**

**P.S. I don't own Maureen, Joanne, Mimi, Roger, or Rent :-)**

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"OH MY GOD JOANNE IT HURTS." 

"I'm sorry baby, I'm sorry," I said to her as I pushed her curls off of her sweaty forehead. "Just think about how amazing it will be when Madison and Isabelle are here, ok? I promise it will all be worth it when it's over and they're here baby. I promise."

Shit, it better be worth it, I thought to myself as I picked up her hand and rubbed it in between my palms. Maureen had been in labor for over 5 hours already, and she was starting to consider going to the hospital to get an epidural. I didn't bother telling her that it was too late for her to get an epidural for fear that she'd kill me; she was already five centimeters dilated, and I also knew she wasn't going to get out of this bed even if the sky was falling. It was her idea to have the twins at home anyways, and since I was the one who had to work everything out with her doctor and midwife, not to mention the month I spent convincing them that it was a good idea, I wasn't letting her go anywhere unless someone's life was in jeopardy. We knew going into this that having twins outside of a hospital maybe wasn't the greatest idea, but Maureen was healthy, the babies were doing fine and were on schedule, so her doctor decided that it would be ok to have a midwife deliver them at our apartment, although the hospital was on stand-by, just in case.

"FUCKING SHIT FUCK OH MY GOD," Maureen yelled as she had another contraction. "Goddammit Joanne, why'd you let me talk you into this?"

"Maureen, Maureen, calm down," Chrissy, our midwife, told her as she checked her. "You're seven centimeters now, and at the rate you're going you should be able to start pushing in about an hour."

"Thank God," Maureen said as she collapsed back onto her pillow. She closed her eyes and I squeezed her hand as I heard someone knock on the door.

"Hey Mimi, can you go see who that is?"

"Yea, sure. I'll be right back." She put down the book that she had been reading to Grace and Kelly before walking out into the living room. I heard her say something to Roger, who was watching TV, before she went to open the door.

"Oh, HI MRS.JEFFERSON! What a nice surprise!" She was half yelling, probably in an attempt to warn me.

A few seconds later my mom walked into our bedroom with a blank expression on her face as she looked at Maureen and I.

"Baby, I'm gonna go talk to my mom for a minute, k? I'll be right back," I told Maureen as I kissed her forehead.

I climbed off of the bed and walked over to my mom, motioning for her to follow me as I continued out into the hall.

"What the _hell_ are you doing here?" I whispered angrily at her.

"I came to watch the birth of my granddaughters. Do you have some sort of problem with that?"

"NO! But I don't understand why you just randomly show up here after you spent the last _nine months _complaining about how there are going to be two more corrupted, fatherless kids in the world? Do you really think that Maureen and I wanted you here?"

"Well obviously Maureen wants me here, seeing as how she's the one who called me this morning to tell me that she had gone into labor." I stared at her, shocked. "I may not approve of your relationship Joanne, but I still have a right to see my grandchildren. And God knows that these kids are going to need someone in their lives to teach them morals."

"Our morals are just find, thank you very much. God, I can't _believe_ Maureen called you," I said, more to myself than to her. "What did she say?"

"She wasn't very happy, that's for sure. As soon as I answered my phone she began listing off everything that I've done wrong when it comes to being your mother, and how she can't believe that I would treat my only child like this, and once she was done pointing out all of my supposed 'flaws' she mentioned that she had just gone into labor and that if I had any sense left in me then I would come over and watch the birth." She crossed her arms over her chest. "She then went on to tell me that even though her parents are still a little uneasy with her choice of lifestyle that they still came to Kelly's birth, and the least that I could do was support my grandchildren. That woman honestly has some nerve, calling me at 6 in the morning to talk to me like that. I honestly don't understand why you stay with her; you could do so much better."

I was just about to lash back at her for the last thing she had said, but thankfully Mimi opened the door, rescuing me. "Sorry to interrupt you two, but Maureen's fully dilated and she refuses to push with you, Jo." She opened the door all the way and as I walked into the room she ran down the hall, coming back with Roger in tow.

"Oh my god Joanne, get over here RIGHT NOW!" Maureen was sitting up in our bed, propped up against some pillows and the blanket that had been covering her legs was now gone, revealing her huge swollen belly and her tank top, the only article of clothing that she had on. Mimi had sat down on the right side of her with Kelly in her lap and Grace kneeling next to her, staring intensely at Chrissy who was getting everything ready for the delivery.

I sat down on the other side of Maureen and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, fully aware that my mom was watching. I held her hand with one of my and moved her sweaty curls away from her face with the other.

"It'll be ok baby. They're almost here."

A few minutes later after Maureen had more or less broke my hand, Madison was almost here. Mimi and Grace had gone down to the end of the bed to watch her come out, and Roger was now sitting with Kelly next to Maureen. I was still in the same spot, trying not to cry as Maureen squeezed my hand even harder, while also trying to look down at Madison coming out.

"Maureen, you're doing great, just hang in there," Chrissy said, trying to keep Maureen calm.

"Mommy! Momma! I can see her!" Grace squealed her face lighting up with excitement.

Mimi had a big smile on her face too. "That's right, Gracie. Look at that full head of hair she has!"

"I wanna see!" I sat up on my knees and tried to look, but as soon as I was up I got yanked back down by Maureen.

"You'll have plenty of time to look at her later," she said through clenched teeth. "Right now you're helping me get through this shit."

"I would hardly call-"

"Shut up," she hissed, glaring at me.

"Maureen, on the count of 3 I need you to give me one big push, and she'll be here, ok? 1… 2… 3." Maureen screamed and crushed my hand as she did what Chrissy said. Not even two seconds later I saw Chrissy hold up a very big, very pink baby girl. Grace stared at her in astonishment as Chrissy showed her how to cut the cord. As soon as they were done she looked back at Maureen who had started to have another contraction.

"Oh shit," she said as the smile disappeared from her face. She quickly handed Madison to Mimi and turned back to Maureen. "Mimi, I need you to go clean her off and then wrap her up."

"Chrissy... is something wrong? My mood quickly dropped from excited to worried.

"No, no, nothing's wrong… shit." She quickly grabbed another blanket from behind her without taking her eyes away from Maureen. "Ok, Maureen, on the count of three I need you to give me a really big push. 1…2…3!"

Maureen screamed like she had never screamed before and squeezed my hand like there was no tomorrow. Chrissy and I both kept encouraging her to not give up, and before I knew it Chrissy was holding up another baby girl, except unlike the first one, this one was screaming… just like Maureen. Once again Grace helped cut the cord before Chrissy went to clean her off and check on Madison. As soon as she was done cutting the cord, Grace ran around the bed and jumped into my lap.

"You did a great job angel," I said as I hugged her and kissed her on the forehead. "And of course you were fantastic, too, Honeybear."

"Yea, yea, I know," Maureen replied as she smiled weakly.

Kelly was on the verge of falling asleep, so Roger decided to take her back to her room. As he was leaving the room Chrissy walked over to us with the babies.

"Congratulations," she said, smiling. "Maureen, you did great." All Maureen did was smile.

"Here's Madison," she said as she handed me one of the babies. "And this is Isabelle, our little trouble maker," she laughed a little as she leaned over and handed Maureen the other baby.

"God, Joanne. She's beautiful." Maureen looked down as Isabelle and picked up one of her little hands. "Let me see Madison."

Grace moved off of my lap so I could move closer to Maureen. She sat up and leaved over to look at Madison, who was in my arms.

"She looks just like you Pookie." She held Isabelle out in front of her so I could see her. "They both have your cute little nose," she said with a giggle.

"And they have Mommy's pretty smile," Grace remarked as she finished crawling over to the other side of Maureen. "But how do we know who they are?"

"Well, Isabelle has a purple bracelet on," Maureen replied.

"And Madison has a pink bracelet on," I added. I looked up from the babies for a minute and saw that my mom was still in the room, just quietly standing there, watching us. "All of Madison's things will be pink, and all of Isabelle's things will be purple, so that way we can tell all of their stuff apart," I said as I continued to look at my mom. I hoped that this plan would score us some parenting points with her.

"Karen, come look at your two new granddaughters!" Maureen said to her excitedly. My mom was a little hesitant at first, but she slowly started to make her way over to us.

"Well, Joanne, I must say that you two did a pretty good job once again," she said as she pulled back Madison's blanket to look at her face. Her face had its normal serious expression, but I could tell that she was trying very hard to hold back her smile. "Can I hold one of them?"

"Sure!" Maureen carefully handed Isabelle over to her without thinking twice. My mom held her out in front of her and finally let the smile go as she looked down at her granddaughter. "Wow; she's so beautiful… they both are, just like their mothers."

I looked at her in shock. Did my mother really just compliment us on the children that she didn't want us bringing into the world?

"Can I hold Madison?" My mother looked at me with the smile still on her face.

"Yea. Sure." I stood up and put Madison in her other arm. She smiled down at the girls, and just continued to smile as she looked from one to the other. "They look just like their sisters."

"Here Joanne, take Isabelle. You haven't had a chance to hold her yet." My mom handed Isabelle to me and as I sat back down on the bed she handed Madison to Maureen.

"This is so amazing Pookie." I leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. I leaned up against her and looked down at Isabelle who was smiling at me. I cupped my hand around her head and as I went to pull it away she reached out and grabbed my finger. "Yes it is Honeybear… yes it is."

Later that afternoon Roger drove Grace to her dance class, and when he came back he was excited about holding the twins. He sat down on the bed next to Maureen, with Mimi standing beside him, as Maureen showed him how to hold Madison.

"Jesus Mo, I've held babies before; I know how to do this!"

"Yea, whatever. You've never held a newborn before, and this is my kid so you better be careful." She reluctantly handed the baby over, and Roger held her exactly how Maureen had shown him. His face lit up as he looked down at her, with Mimi smiling over his shoulder.

"Mimi, can we have one of these?" he asked like a little kid that wanted a toy. "Please?"

"Roger, you know that wouldn't be fair to the kid… you know what could happen."

"Please, Meems? They have medicines and stuff now that could keep the baby from getting sick. I did all the research already."

"You _researched_ this?" Mimi asked, obviously trying to hold back a laugh. "Well if you want a baby so bad, then you can go research guys being pregnant, because I'm all game if you wanna be fat for nine months."

"Really?"

We all stared at him for a minute before we all started laughing. "What? I'm serious!"

"Roger, even if we could do all those things, you know we can't afford to raise a child. We can barely afford to take care of ourselves!" She sat down on the bed behind him and wrapped her arms around him as she rested her head on his shoulder. "Besides, it wouldn't be fair to the kid if, you know, something were to happen to us…" The expression on her face fell as she looked down at Madison asleep in Roger's arms. She was so great with the girls that it hurts us all to see her not be able to have her own.

"Well you know you can watch the girls whenever you want. Seriously. Anytime. It'll be one less thing for us to worry about," Maureen said with a laugh, bringing Mimi's smile back to her face. "Besides, the girls adore you Mimi, especially Grace. She said that she wants to be a dancer just like you when she grows up… thank god she doesn't know _what_ kind of a dancer you are."

Everyone laughed. This was why I loved Maureen so much; the reason I stayed with her, because no matter what the situation was she always found a way to make us all laugh.


End file.
